As part of this national campaign, Acceso Hispano, and initiative of Self Reliance Foundation is launching a 5-week pilot campaign (El Cancer Nos Afecta A Todos) in the Denver metropolitan area on November 16, 2009 to inform and educate Spanish-dominant Latino’s about Colorectal cancer, prevention and early detection through a Spanish-language mass-media and community outreach activities in partnership with the Colorado Colorectal Screening Program, Consulado Mexicano de Denver, AVANCE Supermarkets, and the Denver Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. We are reaching the Latino audience through print, radio and television media along with workshops at community based churches. Members of the community who are uninsured and are interested in connecting with a primary health provider and learn if they are eligible for a colonoscopy at no cost to them are encouraged to contact us via telephone or email.

To find out more about the community centers that work in partnership with the Colorado Colorectal Screening Program (CCSP) in your area visit our recursos page and type in your zipcode and the keyword ECNAT (El Cancer Nos Afecta a Todos – Cancer affects everyone).  More information is also available by calling our hotline 1-800-473-3003 or by email info@accesohispano.org.

Breast self-exam should be part of your monthly health care routine, and you should visit your doctor if you experience breast changes. If you’re over 40 or at a high risk for the disease, you should also have an annual mammogram and physical exam by a doctor. The earlier breast cancer is found and diagnosed, the better your chances of beating it.

The actual process of diagnosis can take weeks and involve many different kinds of tests. Waiting for results can feel like a lifetime. The uncertainty stinks. But once you understand your own unique “big picture,” you can make better decisions. You and your doctors can formulate a treatment plan tailored just for you.

In the following pages of the Symptoms and Diagnosis section, you can learn about:

Understanding Breast Cancer
How breast cancer happens, how it progresses, the stages, and a look at risk factors.

Screening and Testing
The tests used for screening, diagnosis, and monitoring, including mammograms, ultrasound, MRI, CAT scans, PET scans, and more.

Types of Breast Cancer
The different types of breast cancer, including ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC), invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC), inflammatory breast cancer, male breast cancer, recurrent breast cancer, metastatic breast cancer, and more.

Your Diagnosis
The characteristics of the cancer that might affect your treatment plan, including size, stage, lymph node status, hormone receptor status, and more.

Your Pathology Report
A detailed, step-by-step explanation of what your pathology report says and how this might affect your treatment options.

 To read the complete article click here

Source: www.breastcancer.org

Ultimately, our vision is to create US immigration policy that honors our nation’s ideals, protects human dignity, reflects our country’s economic demands, celebrates family unity and provides opportunities for progress. 

For over two decades, the Forum has occupied a unique role, knitting together alliances across diverse faith, labor, immigrant, non-immigrant and business constituencies in communities across the country. 

These alliances come together under the Forum’s leadership to develop, execute and evaluate legislative and administrative advocacy strategies. 

Recently, the Board of Directors completed a strategic positioning process to ensure the Forum is strong in the years to come. Under the leadership of Ali Noorani, the Forum’s new Executive Director and only the third director in the organization’s 27 year history, the Forum’s Strategic Goals are to:

1. Develop relationships and an understanding of disparate views and, taking those views into account, craft a cohesive strategy across a range of issues;
2. Provide trusted information, analysis and advocacy strategy to key audiences shaping immigration policy and regulation across a range of immigration issues;
3. Engage a wider set of pro-immigration voices across constituencies, regions and ethnicities;
4. Implement targeted campaigns, based on the guidance of our Immigration Policy Council, to advance the overall strategy of the pro-immigration alliance; and,
5. Develop the institutional capacities and structures of the Forum needed to achieve its mission.

The Forum is prepared to build broad and cohesive coalitions, execute a highly disciplined legislative strategy, and witness and celebrate the passage of immigration legislation that positively impacts the lives of millions of Americans and New Americans.

To read more information about the forum click here

Source: www.immigrationforum.org

REDD - Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries - is an effort to create a financial value for the carbon stored in forests, offering incentives for developing countries to reduce emissions from forested lands and invest in low-carbon paths to sustainable development.

It is predicted that financial flows for greenhouse gas emission reductions from REDD could reach up to US$30 billion a year. This significant North-South flow of funds could reward a meaningful reduction of carbon emissions and could also support new, pro-poor development, help conserve biodiversity and secure vital ecosystem services.

Further, maintaining forest ecosystems can contribute to increased resilience to climate change. To achieve these multiple benefits, REDD will require the full engagement and respect for the rights of Indigenous Peoples and other forest-dependent communities.

To “seal the deal” on climate change, REDD activities in developing countries must complement, not be a substitute for, deep cuts in developed countries’ emissions. The decision to include REDD in a post-Kyoto regime must not jeopardize the commitment of Annex I countries to reduce their own emissions. Both will be critical to successfully address climate change.

To view the information from the original source click here

Source: www.un-redd.org

http://www.goodsearch.com/toolbar/self-reliance-foundation-srf

With the GoodSearch – Self Reliance Foundation - SRF toolbar each time you search the web with GoodSearch’s Yahoo-powered search engine, about a penny will go to the Self Reliance Foundation.

Also, every time you shop online at 1,000 participating stores including Amazon, eBay, Target, Apple, Staples, Expedia, etc., a percentage of your purchase will be donated for free! The site also has thousands of money-saving coupons!

To give you a sense of how the money can add up, the ASPCA has already earned more than $30,000!

Please tell 10 friends about the GoodSearch toolbar today. They’ve been featured in the NY Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, Oprah Magazine, Good Morning America and more.

(BBCnews) US regulators have unveiled the nation’s first plan to give every American super-fast broadband by 2020.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which will now submit the plan to Congress, said broadband was the “greatest infrastructure challenge”. It estimates that one-third of Americans, about 100 million people, are without broadband at home.

The FCC’s goal is to provide speeds of 100 megabits per second (Mbps), compared to an average 4Mbps now. “Broadband for every American is not too ambitious a plan and it is absolutely necessary,” former FCC chairman Reed Hundt told BBC News. “The consequences of not succeeding are heartbreaking. Every nation needs a common medium to gather around and to have the internet as a common medium where a third are left out is unacceptable.”

 WHAT GOVERNMENT WILL DO

• Connect 100 million homes to super-fast broadband with speeds up to 100 megabits per second.
• Allocate spectrum to allow network updates for wireless broadband
• Increase adoption rates to 90% and make sure every child is digitally literate before they leave school
• Encourage greater competition among providers to make prices cheaper and deals easier to understand
• Use digital switch-over fund to bring cheap broadband to rural areas
• Provide one gigabit broadband to schools, hospitals and military installations

The executive summary revealed that access to high-speed internet services had grown dramatically from eight million Americans 20 years ago to nearly 200 million today. Estimates to implement the plan have been put at $350bn (£233bn). How that bill will be split between private investment and tax dollars is not known.

For years the technology industry has pushed for the US government to create a national broadband plan. Ahead of today’s meeting with Congress, a number of hi-tech companies wrote to Mr Genachowski to praise the plan. “Broadband is critical to America’s long-term economic and social well-being. As society increasingly moves online, the costs of digital exclusion grow as well,” said the signatories of the letter, which included Cisco, Sony, Salesforce, Microsoft, Facebook and Intel.

One possible battleground is expected to be over the sale of spectrum that is mostly in the hands of television broadcasters. Mobile carriers like AT&T and Verizon have said they will need more spectrum in future to provide superfast reliable internet connections to every customer.

To read the complete articel click here

Source: www.bbc.com

Author: Maggie Shiels

The report, released by the Southern Poverty Law Center, documents the experiences of 500 immigrants in the South, finding that Latinos routinely are cheated out of wages, are denied basic health protection and fall victim to racial profiling.

“Under Siege: Life for Low-Income Latinos in the South” details stories such as that of a Tennessee woman who says she was jailed at a cheese factory for asking for pay, a bean picker in Alabama who says his life savings were taken by police at a traffic stop, and a rapist in Georgia who was not arrested because the suspect’s victim was an undocumented immigrant.

Forty-one percent of the people surveyed said they had experienced theft of their wages by employers. Forty-seven percent said they know someone who was treated unfairly by police. Seventy-seven percent of women surveyed said they have been sexually harassed by bosses, many saying that bosses used their immigration status as leverage.

“This report documents the human toll of failed policies that relegate millions of people to an underground economy, where they are beyond the protection of the law,” said Mary Bauer, author of the report. “Workplace abuses and racial profiling are rampant in the South.”

But such discrimination is also rampant nationwide, she said. The human-rights law center focused on the South because that’s the area the Montgomery, Alabama-based group knows best, she said.

Teodoro Maus, president of the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, has heard thousands of discrimination complaints from Mexican immigrants during the past two decades.

“It’s absolutely correct that there’s generalized discrimination,” he told CNN. “There’s a general feeling that discrimination is valid because these people are illegal, because these people have no right to be here.”

But the attitude toward discrimination has changed throughout the years, said Maus, who was also the Mexican consul general in Atlanta, Georgia, from 1990 to 1994 and from 1995 to 2001.

“The big difference from previous years is that there were discriminatory acts before, but not the belief that discrimination is allowed,” he said.

Bolstered by what Maus called “an ultraconservative element,” some people “realized they could have open aggression against a group of people who could not defend themselves.”

Bernardo Mendez Lugo, Mexico’s deputy consul in Tucson, Arizona, said he sees three main forms of discrimination: racial profiling by law enforcement officers, problems in the workplace and difficulties in the rental housing market.

In the workplace, he said, employees often find they are passed over for promotions despite their qualifications or length of employment. The abuse, Mendez Lugo said, is generally aimed at undocumented workers.

“They are told, ‘I’m going to call immigration [authorities] if you keep asking,’ ” Mendez Lugo said.

Federal officials say there are more than 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. Most of them come from Mexico and other Latin American countries.

The center urged the federal government to strengthen labor laws and crack down on racial profiling.

“We’re talking about a matter of basic human rights here,” said Southern Poverty Law Center President Richard Cohen. “By allowing this cycle of abuse and discrimination to continue, we’re creating an underclass of people who are invisible to justice and undermining our country’s fundamental ideals.”

Source: CNN

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Hispanic household food insecurity rate (17.9%) is twice as high as the rate for non-Hispanic White households (8.2%), the most food secure.6

In addition, Latino households with children have even higher rates of food insecurity; 21.6% of these households experience food insecurity compared to 11.8% of similar White households. Because of the dearth of resources in many Latino households, their ability to make food purchases is restricted.  While the typical non-Hispanic White U.S. household spends $45 per person each week for food, Hispanic households spend 25% less, just $33 weekly per person.7

A survey in the Journal of Nutrition found that some of the consequences of food insecurity include hunger pangs, fatigue, lack of concentration at school, low work capacity, stress, disrupted household dynamics, and distorted means of food acquisition and management. 9

Respondents to the survey reported depression, increased need for health care, and decreased participation in social activities. 10 Families will go to great lengths to keep their children from going hungry, which is why it is so alarming that many Latino children do not have adequate resources for a nutritious diet. Food insecure children are twice as likely to be in fair or poor health.11

Further, a survey of parents of low-income, young Latino children who are food insecure found that they are two times more likely to note developmental concerns, including risks of developmental delays or disabilities, than households with children who have adequate resources for food.12 Even small cognitive changes can have lasting impacts on a child s education. Even when a child experiences even mild levels of food insecurity, data suggest that school performance and social skills are comprised.13

The coping mechanisms associated within adequate food resources such as overeating when food is available, compromising the quality of food in order to consume higher quantities, and even skipping meals, which causes metabolic shifts can result in a higher propensity for weight gain. While food insecurity persists in the Latino community, there is also a rising trend of obesity. One recent study found that among Latino preschoolers children in the critical stages of growth nearly one-quarter (24.4%) were identified as obese.15

Food insecurity also has a broader impact on society. The increased risk for and severity of sickness and disease that results from food insecurity can create a demand for more physician time, extensive levels of treatment, and greater rates of hospitalization all of which require more money and resources. The health care costs associated with increased illness due to food insecurity not only fall on individuals who suffer from these effects, but ultimately add strain to the entire health care system.

There is also mounting evidence that the overweight and obesity trends in the United States are due, in part, to high levels of food insecurity.14

The educational benefits of participating in government assistance programs include contributing to families achieving a higher level of nutrition. Program participants are more likely than low income nonparticipants to lack confidence about their knowledge of good dietary practices and the quality of their diet. However, they benefit from nutrition education, which promotes consumption of healthier foods, a balanced diet, and physical activity. The results can be seen in the healthier choices they make in grocery stores.17 Further, the education of adult participants is likely to have lasting impact on the younger family members, encouraging children to make healthy choices in and outside of the household. Although it is difficult to establish a direct causal relationship between participation and health outcomes because of the added effects of the program on reducing poverty and improving socioeconomic status, data show that participants are able to make more deliberate choices that maximize the nutrition content of their food. In fact, despite rising obesity rates throughout the country for the population overall, women who
participated in the Food Stamp Program from 1999 to 2002 were less likely to be overweight and
were able to keep their weight relatively steady compared to nonparticipants.18

Document sampled from the House Committee on Agriculture website.

For more information on Food and Nutrition Assistance Programs visit: www.fns.usda.gov

The phone call revealed that “Ernesto” was a victim of domestic abuse and for that reason was forced to leave his home. His ex-wife has since denied access to their child despite his continued financial support. Desperate, “Ernesto” turned to the courts for help but was unable to garner neither legal representation nor a Spanish interpreter. These barriers prevented him from communicating to the judge that his ex-wife had a history of both domestic and alcohol abuse. After hearing their testimonies, the judge ruled in favor of the mother because “Ernesto” could not provide receipts documenting payments made to support their son.

Determined to protect his child, “Ernesto” will fight to have his case heard before a circuit court. Unsure of how to approach such a process, he turned to Acceso Hispano for help. Jairo Valencia patiently listened to this father’s story and immediately connected him with organizations in the Acceso Hispano Community Service Directory. These resources are located in his community and will provide counsel for “Ernesto” as he fights to overcome legal, cultural and social challenges in the battle for the wellbeing of his child.

Like the thousands of other people who call the Acceso Hispano Helpline, “Ernesto” is in a difficult situation – but he is not alone. Jairo Valencia and the rest of the Acceso Hispano team will continue to provide support to this father and will follow-up on his story.

by Janessa Nickell

Foundation (SRF) launched a pilot Spanish-language human trafficking public awareness campaign featuring a major media and grassroots outreach campaigns in Washington, DC, Virginia and Maryland to build awareness and to assist the local human trafficking programs and services in increasing reported cases of human trafficking. This targeted, cross-platform 4 week communications strategy, which launched in December of 2009, was designed to reach victims and engage local Hispanic communities in identifying and rescuing victims of human trafficking.

Working together with members of the Washington DC Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force, the DC based-AYUDA, Inc., Polaris Project, and Hispanic Communications Network, Self Reliance Foundation delivered a high-impact Spanish-language educational multimedia campaign in the DC metropolitan area that delivered critical information on human trafficking and promoted critical information and key services to the local Spanish-speaking population. The integrated media campaign included 28 bus and 16 bus shelter posters that were located in predominately Hispanic neighborhoods, resulting in more than 5 million media impressions. An innovative call-in media campaign included phone card messaging to 550,000 Spanish-speaking consumers. Radio spots ran on 4 local Spanish stations resulting in 785,000 media impressions, and a live call-in radio program featured bilingual experts who provided detailed facts, information and resources to listeners. The campaign included television spots that ran during popular programs on local Univision and Telemundo stations resulting in more than 750,000 impressions.

The campaign offered a toll free hotline that received more than 3,000 calls during the campaign period. The calls received were primarily from individuals who were potential victims of a wide variety of potential trafficking issues including labor exploitation, unfair labor, domestic violence, sexual exploitation. Self Reliance Foundation’s Acceso Hispano Helpline (Linea de AYUDA) provided quality bilingual information and referral to our nonprofit partners AYUDA and the National Human Trafficking Resource Center and other local service providers.

To reinforce the media campaign’s message, SRF collaborated with the Hispanic-serving community and faith based partners to disseminate the campaign’s public education materials, and develop interpersonal grassroots outreach efforts to engage potential “Good Samaritan” members of the greater Hispanic community in the campaign. Our strategy of “in the air” and “on the ground” marketing efforts were designed to meet our goals of increasing the number of community members who are understand how to identify human trafficking victims, are aware of the purpose and services of the local service providers, and ultimately are willing to work with the these groups to identify, rescue, and assist human trafficking.